9 Responses to “The Somewhat-Racist Italian Flag Light-Pole Stickers of North Beach and What One Chinese Dude Did About Them Ten Years Ago”

San Francisco is 1/3 Chinese today. It is not the 1800’s and there is hardly any support for the Italians who formed North Beach, yet the schools and other businesses get shut down for Chinese New Year. I think it is more racist that Chinese are objecting to the Italian flag in a neighborhood that was built and focused on Italian-American heritage.

Don’t you think it should be the other way around as well? There are already Chinese restaurants and businesses in North Beach. Is there an Italian restaurant in Chinatown? Nope. Besides, this story is based on events that happened back in 2002, not 2012

Obviously North Beach doesn’t care about Chinese restaurants so calling North Beach racist for putting up Italian flags is a racist statement in and of itself if a Chinese guy in 2002 tried covering them up with American flags. That’s far more racist than putting up Italian flags in an Italian neighborhood. Would that make it OK if I tore down all the Chinese language street signs in Chinatown? No because the Chinese people who live there like the signs and need them not just for cultural reasons, but because some of them still can’t speak English and need to know the name of the streets.

Yeah, those little italian flags are a manifestation of subtle (or not so subtle racism) I’ve also see overt racism in action in north beach too — asian patrons being picked on by the counterman at a local north beach charcuterie.

Anyone who’s trying to shift the conversation away is patently in denial. Neighborhood change — deal with it. And, I support the American flag.

Why so Italophobic? Celebrating one’s ethnic heritage doesn’t disrespect people who are not of that heritage. Dredging up a ten-year old news item to inject racism where it doesn’t belong is pretty pathetic.